It was their old box, the one with which they had journeyed from Plassans, all scratched and broken now and held together by cords.

She saw it return as she had often dreamt it would and it needed no great stretch of imagination to believe that the same cab, that cab in which that strumpet of a burnisher had played her such a foul trick, had brought the box back again.

Meanwhile Boche was giving Lantier a helping hand.

The laundress followed them in silence and feeling rather dazed.

When they had deposited their burden in the middle of the room she said for the sake of saying something: "Well! That's a good thing finished, isn't it ?" Then pulling herself together, seeing that Lantier, busy in undoing the cords was not even looking at her, she added: "Monsieur Boche, you must have a drink." And she went and fetched a quart of wine and some glasses.
Just then Poisson passed along the pavement in uniform.